Arbour to head ICG

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 July 2009, 11:28 GMT]
Former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, becomes the President of the International Crisis Group (ICG), a Brussels headquartered organization, recognised as one of the world’s leading independent, non-partisan, source of analysis and advisory group on the prevention and resolution of deadly conflict, a media release issued by the ICG said Wednesday. During Ms Arbour's UN post, she visited Sri Lanka on a 5-day mission in October 2007, when Colombo blocked her from visiting the East. Arbour then spoke of the "weakness of the rule of law," and the "absence of vigourous investigations and prosecutions" on the large number of disappearances.

Knowledgeable on Sri Lanka's human rights issues, Ms Arbour, during the Sri Lanka mission said, "[w]eakness of the rule of law and prevalence of impunity is alarming in Sri Lanka where critical elements for the protection of Human Rights have been undermined or compromised despite the existence of much of the necessary human rights institutional infrastructure."

Ms Arbour is also a former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada and a former Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

Full text of the media release follows:

Louise Arbour Begins As President of Crisis Group

Brussels, 22 July 2009: The Honourable Louise Arbour begins her new post as the International Crisis Group's President and CEO today.

Ms Arbour brings with her decades of practical experience in international affairs, having held many high-profile posts in her distinguished career. From 2004 to 2008, she served as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the highest office mandated by the international community to promote and protect human rights. Before this, she was a Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.

From 1996 to 1999, she served as the Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. In these roles, she drove a significant expansion of trial activity, bringing tens of accused war criminals into custody and leading the Tribunal to issue the first war crimes indictment by an international court of a serving head of state, President Slobodan Milošević.

"I'm delighted to be taking up this new challenge, and I look forward to working with Crisis Group's staff around the world as we fulfil the organisation's mission of conflict prevention and resolution", says Louise Arbour.

Ms Arbour succeeds Gareth Evans, who served with distinction as Crisis Group's President and CEO since January 2000. He returns to Australia, from which home base he will be primarily engaged in his role as Co-Chair of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, a joint global initiative of the Australian and Japanese governments (www.icnnd.org). He will also remain on the Board of Crisis Group.

Chronology:


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13.10.07   UN alarmed by weakness of law, prevalence of impunity in Sri..


External Links:

ICG:		International Crisis Group
Wiki:		Louise Arbour
ICG:		The Limits of State Sovereignty Neelan Tiruchelvam lecture by Gareth Evans